Patrick Costello (Dublin South Central, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

The news of funding and the humanitarian aid and effort is very welcome, and I know it will go a long way on the ground. It highlights another issue in that now there is a UN mission on the ground where there was not before and the UNHRC is getting involved whereas before there was a threadbare presence from the Red Cross. That was essentially all that was able to get into the region, which allowed Azerbaijan to be able to escalate its violence and brutality.

One of the things I find frustrating around this is essentially the double standard. The Minister will have heard this from many Deputies in this Chamber with regard to Palestine but, certainly, we have here a country that has committed a crime of aggression, deliberately targeted civilians, starved them and denied them medication. It is committing ethnic cleansing and has perhaps even gone so far as genocide given that it is wiping out even any memory of these populations. They are wildly corrupt. The Azerbaijani laundromat has undermined European democracy as well. It is all about hiding internal human rights abuses. Yet, I doubt we would give the Russians, who have been at similar things, a warm reception in this Chamber. It is quite frustrating when we see the Azerbaijani Government committing the exact same breaches of international law and human rights abuses being given a warm welcome here.

Ultimately, though, we need to get more involved in this region, whether that is through us or through our European Union colleagues. This region is a neighbourhood of ours. It is a region that has been deeply troubled and destabilised through Russian efforts in many ways. Armenia itself is a country that seeks to build deeper relations with Ireland and trade with Ireland and the European Union. I would welcome if the Minister could perhaps give us an update after these various EU meetings at which there will be discussions both in meetings with European colleagues and, I understand, at side meetings as well. The Minister might come back or write to me afterwards with a further update with regard to those.

See this speech in context